Cantor Unable To Name Any ‘Compromises’ Republicans Are Willing To Make On Health Care Reform

Last night in his joint address to Congress, President Obama criticized — and praised — the actions of both Republicans and Democrats in the health care debate. While he said that he still supports a public option, he also said that he was open to “reforming our medical malpractice laws” to “help bring down the cost of health care.”

Responding this morning on ABC’s Good Morning America, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) basically pretended that none of that ever happened. He said that Obama still hadn’t offered any “guarantees” that health care reform wouldn’t “break the bank” or “ration” care. (Obama actually did address both issues in his speech last night, saying that the plan “will not add to our deficit” and insisting that claims about rationing and death panels are lies.)

Cantor also lamented that he hadn’t “heard some more on medical liability reform.” When host Robin Roberts pointed out that Obama did offer compromises on that issue and wondered what Republicans are willing to give, Cantor avoided the question and continued to attack Obama for not giving the GOP everything it desires:

ROBERTS: But the president did show some support for what you just talked about, John McCain — Senator John McCain. He did show support for that plan. And he did make some concessions. You talk about the guarantees. But are you willing to — some compromises of your own now, to go back to the table?

CANTOR: You know, Robin, I think it’s very important that we dismiss this notion of a government option. I think if we listen to the American people right now — the fear surrounds this notion that somehow the government will replace the health care system that we know in this country.

Watch it:

Throughout the health care debate, medical malpractice has largely been the only idea that Republican lawmakers have. Now that Obama has called their bluff and publicly put it on the table, they’re struggling to move on and come up with new objections. In addition to Cantor, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) criticized Obama for last night offering “essentially the same policies a majority of Americans reject.” “We need real solutions like lawsuit abuse reform,” he added.

Months ago, Obama also put tort reform on the table, asking what Republicans had to offer in return. They replied that they weren’t willing to make any concessions whatsoever, and proceeded to bash Obama for not offering any GOP compromises for the rest of the summer.

Transcript:

CANTOR: I don’t think necessarily last night that we heard in the House what we’re going to need to move forward on — on this idea of a government option.

And I think, you know, we — we went last night looking for some specifics. A lot of what I heard has been heard before.

I do think, though, that the president did leave open the door for us, as Republicans, to bring our ideas forward, and pointed out some areas that perhaps we could work together.

I think we really need to start with some guarantees, though. There need to be some guarantees that the government is not going to take away the health care decision-making from a patient and their doctor. I think we need to start with the guarantee that there won’t be any government rationing or discrimination of any kind.

And I think we need some guarantees that say we’re not going to break the bank with a trillion-dollar program.

So if we start there, I do think that there are some other areas we can work together. Obviously, the president talked about the preexisting conditions. We can fix that. Senator McCain suggested a program during last year’s campaign that would create universal access programs at the state level. Those are the type things we can do.

I wish I had heard some more on medical liability reform. Because I do think that’s a common sense way to bring down health care costs.

ROBERTS: But the president did show some support for what you just talked about, John McCain — Senator John McCain. He did show support for that plan. And he did make some concessions. You talk about the guarantees. But are you willing to — some compromises of your own now, to go back to the table?

CANTOR: You know, Robin, I think it’s very important that we dismiss this notion of a government option. I think if we listen to the American people right now — the fear surrounds this notion that somehow the government will replace the health care system that we know in this country.

And the fact is, there are probably close to 90 percent of the citizens in this country that do have insurance. Most of the people that have insurance like the insurance they have. But we’ve got to do something about the costs. There is no question that the current system is unacceptable. We cannot sustain the current system. So we’ve got to work together to find some ways to bring down those costs.